Our Mission

We are here to create a global collective of community leaders working to build a more resilient, adaptable and prosperous future.

We offer hands on education and experiences exploring the worlds of natural building, homesteading, wildcrafting, permaculture, and off-grid energy solutions.

We believe that our current global systems are both inefficient and unreliable in the face of real life disaster response, and that it is wise to prepare early.

We work to equip our students with the skills, knowledge, tools, and vision to be able to build shelter, grow food, and show up for your community in the face of natural disasters.

We create intelligently designed, effective, and low cost living systems that put the power back into the peoples hands.

Our Story

After discovering the world of earthships and permaculture in 2012, founding activist and engineer Ahmed Al-Mulla was working to step out of his life on the hamster wheel of production and consumption.

He had set out on a mission to learn all he could about ecology, natural building, permaculture and off-grid energy systems, and was leading a tour to one of the worlds largest and oldest eco-villages, Auroville, the city of dawn.

During their final stop in Gorkha, Nepal the team found themselves in the midst of a natural disaster. A 7.8 Mw earthquake ripped through the town, and over 800,000 buildings were destroyed in its wake.

The team was challenged to build a model for earthquake resilient buildings that were cost-effective, energy efficient and easy to construct. We worked alongside the communities to build these structures out of local sticks and mud, eventually leading to the construction of the Kusala Carpet Factory, as a place to work and generate livelihood for 22 displaced families in Sindhupalchowk, Nepal.

Over the next 6 years, we have continued to support local communities and disaster relief initiatives in India, Australia and Nepal. We have become a platform for specailised education in alternative energy soloutions, living systems and intelligent design.

We run regular repair cafes, workshops, and courses focused on community resilience and preparation, in the face of climate change and systemic fragility. We believe that by equipping our communities with the right tools, knowledge and wisdom, we are able to truly liberate our living systems and generate the power to shape the future with our own hands.

Learn more about our past projects.

Meet the Team

  • Ahmed Mulla

    FOUNDER, FACILITATOR, PRINCIPAL PARTICIPANT

    As an enthusiastic Engineer, Scientist and School Teacher, Ahmed has a varied background. His passion for natural building was sparked over the last decade by his love of nature and LEAN, intelligent design. This has seen him participating in numerous workshops in Earthships, Strawbale, COB and Mudbrick methods in Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand, India and Nepal. He is also passionate about reconnecting with Nature and empowering others to see that there is a viable alternative to the current systemic model of fossil fueled society. With an affinity for seeing creative design solutions, Ahmed enjoys rising up to a challenge and seeing many possible solutions in a timely and efficient manner.

    Ahmed created the Forage Foundation in 2014 in response to a need to share the Natural Building and Holistic Living insights with people all over the world. As an Educator/Facilitator, Ahmed enjoys sharing this knowledge in a practical and creative way.

  • Bhupin Pun

    PROJECT DIRECTOR, FACILITATOR, NEPAL

    A local Nepali who works and resides in the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. His journey towards the empowerment and sustainability movement began when he got involved with Permaculture half a decade ago and began taking people through tours of his family farm in Tatopani. His connection to nature and spirituality was sparked by working with others who had learned new ways of intelligent design and land management.

    After the 2015 Permacultourism tour, Bhupin met Ahmed Mulla and was inspired and motivated to begin learning about natural building. The 2015 Earthquake was also very difficult for his family and Bhupin put out the intention to spread this cost-effective and Earthquake resilient design to others in the local community. This was when the first Forage Tours workshop took place and the 'Clubhouse Cobhouse' education centre was built in 2016.

  • Joe Westerholt

    ARCHITECT, FACILITATOR, GERMANY

    Joe is an architect and Pizza-ovenist from Germany. He is on his way to specialise in a more sustainable and senseful way of architecture. He is also interested in the traditional ways of craftsmanship and the efficient way of using resources the planet is offering us humans since millions of years… “my aim is to create connections with likeminded individuals, inspire the confused few and be able to cross think my own healthy path in times of medial waves of destruction”… Joe has been traveling heaps and he is now reconnecting to his European roots which will strengthen his own sustainable way of life there as well as the network of my international crew.

    Joe joined forage foundation after experiencing Ahmed’s story about his first impression of the 2015 earthquake in person, where Ahmed met Bhupin and saw a chance to support him, his family and friends throughout a social network thats been created with the Tatopani-farm as well as an international organisation of non-profit thinking and cultural exchange…